Books: Grandeur, Condensed

THE PORTABLE GIBBON: THE DECLINE
AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (691 pp.) Edifed by Dero A.
SoundersViklnq ($2.50).

Among the stubborn ghosts that stalk the mind of modern literate man are
the great books he intends to read some day. High on many such
listsbehind War and Peace, but well ahead of the Summa Theologicais
Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. From now on,
procrastinators will have to find fresh excuses: Gibbon has been
streamlined. Dero Saunders, one of the editors of FORTUNE and an old
Gibbon fan, has...